The Third Age in Detail

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We butchered orcs and skewered goblins to bring you a walkthrough of West Moria.

By Juan Castro

Regardless of how cool anyone thinks they are, there's just something about the Lord of the Rings that forces the inner dweeb in all of us to come bubbling to the surface. Let's face it; the literary masterpiece covers all the basics: hot elf babes, wicked-cool magical powers and weapons of orc destruction. It may have been surprising for Hollywood executives to green light the film adaptation with a practically un-proven director, but it's no surprise the three films went on to gross a zillion dollars.

A movie adaptation satiated the needs of film fans, but what about gamers? Where do they go for their own special brand of Tolkien-based heroics? Now there's an answer. Lord of the Rings: The Third Age delivers orc-crunching action spanning the entire trilogy. And while you can't play as any of the main characters, the experience parallels the events from the movies closely, allowing for several run-ins with the characters from the original story.

To prove we're not high off the Hobbit's leaf (sorry, I had to) we've taken an early build of Third Age and stormed through the second chapter of the first episode. By the end of the journey, we had kicked so much goblin ass we were practically swimming in an ocean of blood and gizzards. Full details down below.

Background

As stated before, we played through the second chapter of the first episode. It took us through Western and Central Moria. Tolkien fans know where Moria is in relation to other regions in Middle-Earth, but for those who don't, it's the part in The Fellowship of the Ring where Gandolf lays the smackdown on a huge fire demon just before slipping into oblivion.

Eight main areas make up the territory between the West Moria Gate and Balin's Tomb; the tomb being near the end of the second chapter. As you start, you'll have four characters in your party: Hadhod (Dwarf,) Idrial (Elf,) Elegost (Ranger) and Berethor (protagonist and Gaurd of Gondor.)

Walkthrough

The chapter starts with a bang. Actually, it's more of a splash, seeing as how you need to fight the Water Watcher just to enter West Moria. The Water Watcher was that giant squid-like monster that nearly ate Pippin in the movie. But then, it was Pippin's own fault for throwing rocks in the lake and disturbing the Water Watcher's sleep. Anyway, winning the fight takes time because you can only use long-range attacks such as magic spells and arrows.

A winning strategy: use Hadhod's stone shield spell to protect Idrian; you'll need her healing abilities to survive the fight. Use Elegost to cast Aimed Shot and Creature's Bane over his volley of arrows every time he fires. This should incur 330+ points of damage while a critical should take around 500+. Although the Water Watcher is a water-based enemy (obviously,) use Idrian's water attack for another 300+ hit attack. Once the "Perfect" skill mode is activated, use the Arrow Volley attack to cause 1,500+ damage. Nice!

Once the Water Watcher takes enough damage, he gets all panicky and busts open the gates to Moria. Our band of heroes then proceeds into Moria. Hadhod thinks he'll get to see all of his Dwarf buddies in the mining city of Moria. Unfortunately, he walks in to discover his family and friends have been lying dead for years. In fact, each dwarf corpse has like a dozen arrows sticking out of it. Understandably, Hadhod flips out and swears vengeance. Idrian promises to help him.

The party finally makes their way into the darkened halls of Moria. You're objective here is to find seven runes scattered throughout the immense network of caves. Proceeding north pits you against water watcher again in a flooded hall. Use same technique to win. Only this time, you'll gain all sorts of booty including new armor pieces. Keep heading north through the hall and climb through stone steps to head further into Moria. You'll keep running north through a narrow cave to exit in an enormous smoke-filled cavern filled with decaying wooden structures; remnants of a dead civilization.